Rep. Ritchie Torres: Trump-Qatar Plane Gift a “Flying Grift”

Today, Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15) wrote to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, Defense Department Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins, and Acting Director of the Office of Government Ethics Jamieson Greer in response to reports that President Trump will be accepting an aircraft as a gift from the Qatari government.

The full letter reads (PDF can be viewed here):

I am writing to express alarm over reports that President Donald Trump is poised to accept a luxury aircraft — a Boeing 747-8 — from the government of Qatar. The plane, so opulent it has been described as a “palace in the sky,” is set to be made available to President Trump for official use as Air Force One and then for private use once he leaves office.

With an estimated value of $400 million, the aerial palace would constitute the most valuable gift ever conferred on a President by a foreign government. The American people are witnessing, in real time, what can only be described as a “flying grift.”

Rather than enforcing ethics, the Attorney General has affixed the Department of Justice’s seal of approval to a transaction that flagrantly violates both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. That clause explicitly prohibits any person holding public office from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” No one — not even President Trump — is above the law, let alone the Constitution.

Just as troubling as the gift itself is the identity of the benefactor. Qatar is not a neutral party on the world stage. It has a deeply troubling history of financing a barbaric terrorist organization that has the blood of Americans on its hands. In the cruelest irony, Air Force One will have something in common with Hamas: paid for by Qatar.

This “flying grift” is merely the latest chapter in a tawdry tale of presidential profiteering unprecedented in American history. Donald Trump has been caught selling access to the White House to the highest 220 bidders for his personal meme coin. Meanwhile, a foreign government has reportedly agreed to use his family’s stablecoins in a $2 billion transaction. According to CNBC, Trump and his associates have enriched themselves from the sale of $TRUMP — at the expense of 764,000 retail investors who lost money. The $2 billion in foreign deposits — if invested in U.S. Treasuries — would generate tens of millions in interest for the Trump family.

Instead of “draining the swamp,” as he promised, Donald Trump is filling it — on a scale never seen before. I urge you to take the following actions:

1. Conduct an immediate ethics review of the Qatari gift;

2. Issue a formal advisory opinion on whether the gift violates federal ethics regulations and the Emoluments Clause;

3. Recommend policy reforms to prevent the conversion of foreign gifts into private property by current or former presidents.

The American presidency is not a personal inheritance. It does not exist to enrich Donald Trump. It belongs to “We the People.” If we fail to draw the line here, there may soon be no line left to draw.